How Does HDRi Make My Gaming Station Better?

The joy of sitting down for deep, involved gaming sessions in one of your favourite corners of the world. Your gaming station. There’s your PC, and over yonder your consoles. Ease into a comfy gaming-minded seat that required weeks of research to find. As did the desk, which you now feel offers the comfort you demand while engaged in your favourite hobby.

Then just as you’re in the midst of imbuing yourself in one of the games you’re currently into, it gets late or early, the light changes in your gaming station area, and that HDR monitor once more doesn’t look quite right. Colours lose much of their vivid impact, details get lost in over or underexposure, and contrast similarly appears off, as does brightness.

That happens because the gaming monitor you chose for your gaming indulgence, while having good intentions, only offers plain, straightforward HDR. Whatever metadata the source delivers, your monitor displays without any awareness and regardless of all-important ambient lighting conditions.

But of course a better way of doing things exists. We call it BenQ HDRi Technology, and the “i” clearly stands for intelligence. 

HDRi technology involves a sensor embedded in the monitor, typically up front where relevant light changes register most prominently. The sensor maintains constant communication with the monitor’s processing core. You see, to have smart HDR you need a smart monitor. Basic models with low-grade computing capabilities can’t handle reactive HDR and leave your gaming station with simple metadata, just “spitting out” whatever they’re fed, as is.

There’s no denying that any processing done to an image source adds latency caused by response time. As such, HDR and more so HDRi do contribute some lag. Though negligible and unnoticeable to most people, if you’re engaged in competitive multiplayer or esports events you can just turn HDRi off or switch to default HDR mode.

HDRi does wonders for story rich, graphically intricate single player titles as well as non-gaming content like movies and TV series mastered in HDR. But if you decide every millisecond counts then a few clicks in the OSD and HDRi turns off until needed again. Mind you, HDRi doesn’t add as much lag as heavy post processes like dynamic contrast, edge enhancement, smooth motion, and eco modes. But still, you’re in control of the experience.

By now HDR has become a staple of displays, especially as 4K changes into the default resolution of most screens. HDR and 4K go hand in hand but as you’ve probably noticed, improved images increasingly don’t come from more specs but rather from better specs. Not just pixels, better pixels. Not just HDR, but smart HDR. Don’t waste all the hard work you put into setting up your own gaming station. Make sure you get the best visuals possible.